Washington is 5-0 as it heads into an off weekend.

The Huskies are hoping to get a little healthier during the bye week because on the other side stands the toughest test of the season. And perhaps the most important.

Washington looks like a legitimate College Football Playoff contender through five games, and it’ll have a chance to solidify that standing when it welcomes Oregon to Husky Stadium on Oct. 14 for a top-10 showdown. So far, UW has done absolutely everything asked of it, and that has the program in a position to make some major noise down the stretch.

Here are five key stats that have defined the season thus far for Washington.

446.4 passing yards per game

Not typically the biggest proponent of using per-game stats but in this instance I think it’s helpful to understand what makes the Washington offense so frightening. They just keep coming at teams.

There have only been four other Power Five teams in the last 10 years who have averaged at least 400 passing yards a game over the course of a season. Mike Leach-coached teams did it twice, and Leach’s former team (Texas Tech) did it once.

UW is firing on all cylinders in the pass game right now. Remove the service academies who will throw the ball fewer times all season than Washington will in a week, and the 11.6 yards per pass attempt that UW is averaging right now would lead the country.

Michael Penix Jr., who has the arm strength to make any throw on the field and the confidence to try all of them, leads the nation with 1,999 passing yards and 16 touchdowns in five games. UW has never had a 5,000-yard passer, and Penix is on track to threaten that.

Arizona chose to play with seven defensive backs on the field to try and quell the relentless downfield shot game that UW presents and it still gave up 31 points and 363 pass yards in a loss.

The Huskies have a 40/60 split thus far when it comes to running and throwing it. Even against the Wildcats, it was a pass-first approach. They won’t change, and they’ve found ways so far to make it work regardless of what the other guys are doing.

3 sacks allowed

UW has given up three sacks in five games.

How do you make a non-stop aerial assault work? You protect the quarterback, keep the offense ahead of the chains, and stay in-system so you can dial up a shot play whenever you want. The Huskies have faced the sixth-fewest third downs of any team in the country as a result.

Given Penix’s career before Washington, keeping him upright has been priority No. 1 for Washington offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb and coach Kalen DeBoer. So far, so good.

151 first-half points

Through five first halves, Washington is outscoring the opposition 151-37.

The second quarter has been particularly explosive for Washington, which has scored a combined 85 points in 75 minutes of game clock.

Want to stay in the game? Falling hopelessly behind UW is a recipe for disaster and just about everyone has done it so far. Arizona has been the only team to outscore Washington in a second quarter all year.

8 interceptions

Washington is tied with Colorado for the Pac-12 lead in interceptions through five games.

The Husky secondary has faced the third-most pass attempts of any FBS team this season. And that’s not an indictment of the quality of the secondary — UW is top-25 in completion percentage allowed and yards per pass allowed. Rather, it’s an indication of the kinds of games Washington has found itself in.

Things have mostly gone according to plan for the Huskies in every sense. The pass game has worked wonders because the protection has held up, which has allowed UW to jump all over teams early, which is allowing UW to play from an advantageous position on defense. They know opponents have to pass. Opponents know they have to pass. And the Huskies have defended more of those passes than any other Pac-12 team.

They have 20 pass breakups and eight picks. Teams can expect to intercept about 20% of the passes they defend, and UW is bringing in just under 30%. Does that hold throughout the rest of the season?

Perhaps the bigger question here is whether that confidence from the first five weeks helps Washington snag a handful of momentum-swinging interceptions in games that are much tighter.

6 sacks

With Washington so far ahead of teams so often this season, you’d think the setting would be perfect for UW’s defensive front to pin its ears back and rush the passer with reckless abandon. UW is not getting home, though. It has only six sacks in five games, and just one in Pac-12 play so far.

A year after nine sacks in 13 appearances, Bralen Trice has just one sack in his first five games. Trice was one of the highest-graded pass rushers in college football a year ago and UW needs him to be a star on the defensive side of the football. He’s been slow out of the gates, but it hasn’t just been him.

The 5-0 start has pushed UW into the AP Top 10. The Huskies are deservedly getting attention as a legitimate College Football Playoff threat. But any conversation on UW has to also include an acknowledgment that the defense has been underwhelming so far. Opponents are constantly having to chase games; UW should be able to create more havoc than it has so far.